Written by Lydia Jones

If you come to Yucatán for a winter holiday, you are sure to celebrate the New Year on the 31 December, alongside the indigenous Maya who live here. But stop for a moment and think about their own celebrations. Because for their ancestors the New Year ran from the 26th of July, celebrated with breathtaking night-time rituals, and their descendants still perform some of those ancient rituals in their jungle villages today.

Curious?

In today’s world we celebrate a new year that begins on January 1st based on the Gregorian calendar. The Maya had a Solar (Haab) calendar of 365 days like us, and their calendar was based on the movements of the planets and stars.

The last five days of the old year were called by the ancient Maya wayeb and they were considered unlucky because during them all kinds of misfortunes occurred, such as sudden death or snakebites. They offered turkey and incense to the gods in those five days, and they danced over fires, to ask the gods to be merciful.

The first day of the new year was called 1 Pop. On the day of 'the seating of Pop' (New Year's Eve), divinations regarding the forthcoming year were conducted by the priests and ritual cleansings took place. The old patron gods of the month were no longer worshipped and the new patron gods for the upcoming month were 'seated' in their office. Their statues were placed at the east, south, north and west corners of the town, to mark the cardinal directions of the world, and the fifth one in the main temple of the city, in the center of the world.

Well, we perform some rituals too. We dance, although not necessarily over fires, we feast and we drink. But what about their rituals of the New Year on the completion of the 'life cycle'. Every fifty-two years there was a great fear that fell upon all the ancient nations of Mexico when the sun set on the last day of the 'century' and no man could tell whether it would ever rise again. This moment marked the beginning of the calendric count.

The Maya perceived time as cyclical, so imagine their two calendars as two wheels turning around. One has 260 days and the other 365 days. They meet at the same spot, the first day and month of each of the calendars, once in 52 years. So that was the life cycle for them and they celebrated every new life cycle as we do the new century.

The celebration to mark this event is now referred to as the New Fire Ceremony. Fire was considered a fundamental element of the universe, present in all things, running right through the cosmos and the Underworld. On the last day of the old 52-year cycle they put out all the fires, from temples to household hearths, on which each household cooked their meals. Then all the streets were swept, old hearth stones were thrown away along with old pots, jars, plates, clothes and working tools. All the inanimate objects had been given a soul through dedication rituals when they were new. But by now their divine essence had expired, they were out of the 'warranty period'. New objects and clothes replaced them in the new year. Statues of gods were ceremoniously washed and cleansed. Pregnant women were locked in granaries and their faces were painted blue in the belief that they would not then turn into monsters during the night. The men of the town washed and anointed themselves with red paint and went to the court of the temple and participated in the kindling of new fire. There the priests gathered, dressed in fine cloaks, masks, and feather headdresses, led by the figure of Kukulkán, the feathered serpent god. Just imagine this scene at Chichén Itzá or any pyramid ruin site you choose to visit during your stay here. Four men representing Chak, the rain god, created a square space by standing in the four corners of the court and stretching a cord between them. The space was purified and all those attending the festival entered the space.

They had to wait till midnight, when the star constellations were in the right position. Then the priests sacrificed a captive warrior, cutting his heart out while he was alive (I firmly want to believe that he was sedated beforehand by a hallucinogen). His soul was sent to the sun god as a messenger. By this act the Maya believed that they were keeping the cosmic world in order. Then the priest drilled a new fire in the empty chest cavity of the sacrificial victim, using a sacred drill, an ancient method of making fire. The runners then took the new fire to all the temples in town, and then to all the households. All the fires were lit again.

Bonfires were lit as well, and everyone cut their ears and put their blood in the fire, as their offering to the gods, and they walked over the remains of the hot fire. The entire gathering then ate corn and honey cakes and drank pulque, alcohol made from agave, until they got drunk. Rings a bell? Well, the last part surely does. At least today we are fairly confident that the sun will rise next morning!